Would you like us
henceforth
to take for our motto: 'Let us help the
King, the King will help us'?
King, the King will help us'?
Proudhon - What is Property? An Inquiry into the Principle of Right and of Government
What, then, is the idea which governs you,
proletaires of the nineteenth century? --for really I cannot call you
revolutionists. What do you think? --what do you believe? --what do you
want? Be guarded in your reply. I have read faithfully your favorite
journals, your most esteemed authors. I find everywhere only vain and
puerile _entites_; nowhere do I discover an idea.
I will explain the meaning of this word _entite_,--new, without doubt,
to most of you.
By _entite_ is generally understood a substance which the imagination
grasps, but which is incognizable by the senses and the reason. Thus the
SOPORIFIC POWER of opium, of which Sganarelle speaks, and the PECCANT
HUMORS of ancient medicine, are _entites_. The _entite_ is the
support of those who do not wish to confess their ignorance. It
is incomprehensible; or, as St. Paul says, the _argumentum non
apparentium_. In philosophy, the _entite_ is often only a repetition of
words which add nothing to the thought.
For example, when M. Pierre Leroux--who says so many excellent things,
but who is too fond, in my opinion, of his Platonic formulas--assures us
that the evils of humanity are due to our IGNORANCE OF LIFE, M. Pierre
Leroux utters an _entite;_ for it is evident that if we are evil it is
because we do not know how to live; but the knowledge of this fact is of
no value to us.
When M. Edgar Quinet declares that France suffers and declines because
there is an ANTAGONISM of men and of interests, he declares an _entite;_
for the problem is to discover the cause of this antagonism.
When M. Lamennais, in thunder tones, preaches self-sacrifice and love,
he proclaims two _entites_; for we need to know on what conditions
self-sacrifice and love can spring up and exist.
So also, proletaires, when you talk of LIBERTY, PROGRESS, and THE
SOVEREIGNTY OF THE PEOPLE, you make of these naturally intelligible
things so many _entites_ in space: for, on the one hand, we need a new
definition of liberty, since that of '89 no longer suffices; and, on the
other, we must know in what direction society should proceed in order to
be in progress. As for the sovereignty of the people, that is a
grosser _entite_ than the sovereignty of reason; it is the _entite_
of _entites_. In fact, since sovereignty can no more be conceived
of outside of the people than outside of reason, it remains to be
ascertained who, among the people, shall exercise the sovereignty; and,
among so many minds, which shall be the sovereigns. To say that the
people should elect their representatives is to say that the people
should recognize their sovereigns, which does not remove the difficulty
at all.
But suppose that, equal by birth, equal before the law, equal in
personality, equal in social functions, you wish also to be equal in
conditions.
Suppose that, perceiving all the mutual relations of men, whether
they produce or exchange or consume, to be relations of commutative
justice,--in a word, social relations; suppose, I say, that, perceiving
this, you wish to give this natural society a legal existence, and to
establish the fact by law,--
I say that then you need a clear, positive, and exact expression of your
whole idea,--that is, an expression which states at once the principle,
the means, and the end; and I add that that expression is ASSOCIATION.
And since the association of the human race dates, at least rightfully,
from the beginning of the world, and has gradually established and
perfected itself by successively divesting itself of its negative
elements, slavery, nobility, despotism, aristocracy, and feudalism,--I
say that, to eliminate the last negation of society, to formulate the
last revolutionary idea, you must change your old rallying-cries, NO
MORE ABSOLUTISM, NO MORE NOBILITY, NO MORE SLAVES! into that of NO MORE
PROPERTY! . . .
But I know what astonishes you, poor souls, blasted by the wind of
poverty, and crushed by your patrons' pride: it is EQUALITY, whose
consequences frighten you. How, you have said in your journal,--how can
we "dream of a level which, being unnatural, is therefore unjust? How
shall we pay the day's labor of a Cormenin or a Lamennais? "
Plebeians, listen! When, after the battle of Salamis, the Athenians
assembled to award the prizes for courage, after the ballots had been
collected, it was found that each combatant had one vote for the first
prize, and Themistocles all the votes for the second. The people of
Minerva were crowned by their own hands. Truly heroic souls! all were
worthy of the olive-branch, since all had ventured to claim it for
themselves. Antiquity praised this sublime spirit. Learn, proletaires,
to esteem yourselves, and to respect your dignity. You wish to be
free, and you know not how to be citizens. Now, whoever says "citizens"
necessarily says equals.
If I should call myself Lamennais or Cormenin, and some journal,
speaking of me, should burst forth with these hyperboles, INCOMPARABLE
GENIUS, SUPERIOR MIND, CONSUMMATE VIRTUE, NOBLE CHARACTER, I should not
like it, and should complain,--first, because such eulogies are never
deserved; and, second, because they furnish a bad example. But I wish,
in order to reconcile you to equality, to measure for you the
greatest literary personage of our century. Do not accuse me of envy,
proletaires, if I, a defender of equality, estimate at their proper
value talents which are universally admired, and which I, better than
any one, know how to recognize. A dwarf can always measure a giant: all
that he needs is a yardstick.
You have seen the pretentious announcements of "L'Esquisse d'une
Philosophie," and you have admired the work on trust; for either you
have not read it, or, if you have, you are incapable of judging it.
Acquaint yourselves, then, with this speculation more brilliant than
sound; and, while admiring the enthusiasm of the author, cease to pity
those useful labors which only habit and the great number of the
persons engaged in them render contemptible. I shall be brief; for,
notwithstanding the importance of the subject and the genius of the
author, what I have to say is of but little moment.
M. Lamennais starts with the existence of God. How does he demonstrate
it? By Cicero's argument,--that is, by the consent of the human race.
There is nothing new in that. We have still to find out whether the
belief of the human race is legitimate; or, as Kant says, whether
our subjective certainty of the existence of God corresponds with the
objective truth. This, however, does not trouble M. Lamennais. He says
that, if the human race believes, it is because it has a reason for
believing.
Then, having pronounced the name of God, M. Lamennais sings a hymn; and
that is his demonstration!
This first hypothesis admitted, M. Lamennais follows it with a second;
namely, that there are three persons in God. But, while Christianity
teaches the dogma of the Trinity only on the authority of revelation, M.
Lamennais pretends to arrive at it by the sole force of argument; and he
does not perceive that his pretended demonstration is, from beginning to
end, anthropomorphism,--that is, an ascription of the faculties of the
human mind and the powers of nature to the Divine substance. New songs,
new hymns!
God and the Trinity thus DEMONSTRATED, the philosopher passes to the
creation,--a third hypothesis, in which M. Lamennais, always eloquent,
varied, and sublime, DEMONSTRATES that God made the world neither of
nothing, nor of something, nor of himself; that he was free in creating,
but that nevertheless he could not but create; that there is in matter
a matter which is not matter; that the archetypal ideas of the world are
separated from each other, in the Divine mind, by a division which is
obscure and unintelligible, and yet substantial and real, which involves
intelligibility, &c. We meet with like contradictions concerning the
origin of evil. To explain this problem,--one of the profoundest in
philosophy,--M. Lamennais at one time denies evil, at another makes God
the author of evil, and at still another seeks outside of God a
first cause which is not God,--an amalgam of _entites_ more or less
incoherent, borrowed from Plato, Proclus, Spinoza, I might say even from
all philosophers.
Having thus established his trinity of hypotheses, M. Lamennais
deduces therefrom, by a badly connected chain of analogies, his whole
philosophy. And it is here especially that we notice the syncretism
which is peculiar to him. The theory of M. Lamennais embraces all
systems, and supports all opinions. Are you a materialist? Suppress,
as useless _entites_, the three persons in God; then, starting directly
from heat, light, and electro-magnetism,--which, according to the
author, are the three original fluids, the three primary external
manifestations of Will, Intelligence, and Love,--you have a
materialistic and atheistic cosmogony. On the contrary, are you wedded
to spiritualism? With the theory of the immateriality of the body, you
are able to see everywhere nothing but spirits. Finally, if you incline
to pantheism, you will be satisfied by M. Lamennais, who formally
teaches that the world is not an EMANATION from Divinity,--which is pure
pantheism,--but a FLOW of Divinity.
I do not pretend, however, to deny that "L'Esquisse" contains some
excellent things; but, by the author's declaration, these things are not
original with him; it is the system which is his. That is undoubtedly
the reason why M. Lamennais speaks so contemptuously of his predecessors
in philosophy, and disdains to quote his originals. He thinks that,
since "L'Esquisse" contains all true philosophy, the world will lose
nothing when the names and works of the old philosophers perish. M.
Lamennais, who renders glory to God in beautiful songs, does not know
how as well to render justice to his fellows. His fatal fault is this
appropriation of knowledge, which the theologians call the PHILOSOPHICAL
SIN, or the SIN AGAINST THE HOLY GHOST--a sin which will not damn you,
proletaires, nor me either.
In short, "L'Esquisse," judged as a system, and divested of all which
its author borrows from previous systems, is a commonplace work, whose
method consists in constantly explaining the known by the unknown, and
in giving entites for abstractions, and tautologies for proofs. Its
whole theodicy is a work not of genius but of imagination, a patching up
of neo-Platonic ideas. The psychological portion amounts to nothing,
M. Lamennais openly ridiculing labors of this character, without which,
however, metaphysics is impossible. The book, which treats of logic
and its methods, is weak, vague, and shallow. Finally, we find in the
physical and physiological speculations which M. Lamennais deduces
from his trinitarian cosmogony grave errors, the preconceived design of
accommodating facts to theory, and the substitution in almost every case
of hypothesis for reality. The third volume on industry and art is the
most interesting to read, and the best. It is true that M. Lamennais
can boast of nothing but his style. As a philosopher, he has added not a
single idea to those which existed before him.
Why, then, this excessive mediocrity of M. Lamennais considered as
a thinker, a mediocrity which disclosed itself at the time of the
publication of the "Essai sur l'Indifference! "? It is because (remember
this well, proletaires! ) Nature makes no man truly complete, and because
the development of certain faculties almost always excludes an equal
development of the opposite faculties; it is because M. Lamennais
is preeminently a poet, a man of feeling and sentiment. Look at his
style,--exuberant, sonorous, picturesque, vehement, full of exaggeration
and invective,--and hold it for certain that no man possessed of such
a style was ever a true metaphysician. This wealth of expression and
illustration, which everybody admires, becomes in M Lamennais the
incurable cause of his philosophical impotence. His flow of language,
and his sensitive nature misleading his imagination, he thinks that
he is reasoning when he is only repeating himself, and readily takes a
description for a logical deduction. Hence his horror of positive ideas,
his feeble powers of analysis, his pronounced taste for indefinite
analogies, verbal abstractions, hypothetical generalities, in short, all
sorts of entites.
Further, the entire life of M. Lamennais is conclusive proof of
his anti-philosophical genius. Devout even to mysticism, an ardent
ultramontane, an intolerant theocrat, he at first feels the double
influence of the religious reaction and the literary theories which
marked the beginning of this century, and falls back to the middle ages
and Gregory VII. ; then, suddenly becoming a progressive Christian and a
democrat, he gradually leans towards rationalism, and finally falls into
deism. At present, everybody waits at the trap-door. As for me, though I
would not swear to it, I am inclined to think that M. Lamennais, already
taken with scepticism, will die in a state of indifference. He owes
to individual reason and methodical doubt this expiation of his early
essays.
It has been pretended that M. Lamennais, preaching now a theocracy, now
universal democracy, has been always consistent; that, under different
names, he has sought invariably one and the same thing,--unity. Pitiful
excuse for an author surprised in the very act of contradiction! What
would be thought of a man who, by turns a servant of despotism under
Louis XVI, a demagogue with Robespierre, a courtier of the Emperor,
a bigot during fifteen years of the Restoration, a conservative
since 1830, should dare to say that he ever had wished for but one
thing,--public order? Would he be regarded as any the less a renegade
from all parties? Public order, unity, the world's welfare, social
harmony, the union of the nations,--concerning each of these things
there is no possible difference of opinion. Everybody wishes them;
the character of the publicist depends only upon the means by which
he proposes to arrive at them. But why look to M. Lamennais for a
steadfastness of opinion, which he himself repudiates? Has he not said,
"The mind has no law; that which I believe to-day, I did not believe
yesterday; I do not know that I shall believe it to-morrow"?
No; there is no real superiority among men, since all talents and
capacities are combined never in one individual. This man has the power
of thought, that one imagination and style, still another industrial and
commercial capacity. By our very nature and education, we possess only
special aptitudes which are limited and confined, and which become
consequently more necessary as they gain in depth and strength.
Capacities are to each other as functions and persons; who would dare
to classify them in ranks? The finest genius is, by the laws of his
existence and development, the most dependent upon the society which
creates him. Who would dare to make a god of the glorious child?
"It is not strength which makes the man," said a Hercules of the
market-place to the admiring crowd; "it is character. " That man, who
had only his muscles, held force in contempt. The lesson is a good one,
proletaires; we should profit by it. It is not talent (which is also a
force), it is not knowledge, it is not beauty which makes the man. It is
heart, courage, will, virtue. Now, if we are equal in that which makes
us men, how can the accidental distribution of secondary faculties
detract from our manhood?
Remember that privilege is naturally and inevitably the lot of the weak;
and do not be misled by the fame which accompanies certain talents
whose greatest merit consists in their rarity, and a long and toilsome
apprenticeship. It is easier for M. Lamennais to recite a philippic, or
sing a humanitarian ode after the Platonic fashion, than to discover a
single useful truth; it is easier for an economist to apply the laws of
production and distribution than to write ten lines in the style of M.
Lamennais; it is easier for both to speak than to act. You, then, who
put your hands to the work, who alone truly create, why do you wish me
to admit your inferiority? But, what am I saying?
Yes, you are inferior, for you lack virtue and will! Ready for labor and
for battle, you have, when liberty and equality are in question, neither
courage nor character!
In the preface to his pamphlet on "Le Pays et le Gouvernement," as well
as in his defence before the jury, M. Lamennais frankly declared
himself an advocate of property. Out of regard for the author and his
misfortune, I shall abstain from characterizing this declaration, and
from examining these two sorrowful performances. M. Lamennais seems to
be only the tool of a quasi-radical party, which flatters him in order
to use him, without respect for a glorious, but hence forth powerless,
old age. What means this profession of faith? From the first number of
"L'Avenir" to "L'Esquisse d'une Philosophie," M. Lamennais always
favors equality, association, and even a sort of vague and indefinite
communism. M. Lamennais, in recognizing the right of property, gives the
lie to his past career, and renounces his most generous tendencies. Can
it, then, be true that in this man, who has been too roughly treated,
but who is also too easily flattered, strength of talent has already
outlived strength of will?
It is said that M. Lamennais has rejected the offers of several of his
friends to try to procure for him a commutation of his sentence. M.
Lamennais prefers to serve out his time. May not this affectation of a
false stoicism come from the same source as his recognition of the right
of property? The Huron, when taken prisoner, hurls insults and threats
at his conqueror,--that is the heroism of the savage; the martyr
prays for his executioners, and is willing to receive from them his
life,--that is the heroism of the Christian. Why has the apostle of love
become an apostle of anger and revenge? Has, then, the translator of
"L'Imitation" forgotten that he who offends charity cannot honor virtue?
Galileo, retracting on his knees before the tribunal of the inquisition
his heresy in regard to the movement of the earth, and recovering at
that price his liberty, seems to me a hundred times grander than
M. Lamennais. What! if we suffer for truth and justice, must we, in
retaliation, thrust our persecutors outside the pale of human society;
and, when sentenced to an unjust punishment, must we decline exemption
if it is offered to us, because it pleases a few base satellites to call
it a pardon? Such is not the wisdom of Christianity. But I forgot that
in the presence of M. Lamennais this name is no longer pronounced. May
the prophet of "L'Avenir" be soon restored to liberty and his friends;
but, above all, may he henceforth derive his inspiration only from his
genius and his heart!
O proletaires, proletaires! how long are you to be victimized by this
spirit of revenge and implacable hatred which your false friends kindle,
and which, perhaps, has done more harm to the development of reformatory
ideas than the corruption, ignorance, and malice of the government?
Believe me, at the present time everybody is to blame. In fact, in
intention, or in example, all are found wanting; and you have no right
to accuse any one. The king himself (God forgive me! I do not like to
justify a king),--the king himself is, like his predecessors, only the
personification of an idea, and an idea, proletaires, which possesses
you yet. His greatest wrong consists in wishing for its complete
realization, while you wish it realized only partially,--consequently,
in being logical in his government; while you, in your complaints, are
not at all so. You clamor for a second regicide. He that is without sin
among you,--let him cast at the prince of property the first stone!
How successful you would have been if, in order to influence men,
you had appealed to the self-love of men,--if, in order to alter
the constitution and the law, you had placed yourselves within the
constitution and the law! Fifty thousand laws, they say, make up our
political and civil codes. Of these fifty thousand laws, twenty-five
thousand are for you, twenty-five thousand against you. Is it not clear
that your duty is to oppose the former to the latter, and thus, by the
argument of contradiction, drive privilege into its last ditch? This
method of action is henceforth the only useful one, being the only moral
and rational one.
For my part, if I had the ear of this nation, to which I am attached by
birth and predilection, with no intention of playing the leading part
in the future republic, I would instruct the laboring masses to
conquer property through institutions and judicial pleadings; to seek
auxiliaries and accomplices in the highest ranks of society, and to ruin
all privileged classes by taking advantage of their common desire for
power and popularity.
The petition for the electoral reform has already received two hundred
thousand signatures, and the illustrious Arago threatens us with a
million. Surely, that will be well done; but from this million of
citizens, who are as willing to vote for an emperor as for equality,
could we not select ten thousand signatures--I mean bona fide
signatures--whose authors can read, write, cipher, and even think
a little, and whom we could invite, after due perusal and verbal
explanation, to sign such a petition as the following:--
"TO HIS EXCELLENCY THE MINISTER OF THE INTERIOR:--
"MONSIEUR LE MINISTRE,--On the day when a royal ordinance, decreeing
the establishment of model national workshops, shall appear in the
'Moniteur,' the undersigned, to the number of TEN THOUSAND, will repair
to the Palace of the Tuileries, and there, with all the power of their
lungs, will shout, 'Long live Louis Philippe! '
"On the day when the 'Moniteur' shall inform the public that this
petition is refused, the undersigned, to the number of TEN THOUSAND,
will say secretly in their hearts, 'Down with Louis Philippe! '"
If I am not mistaken, such a petition would have some effect. [75] The
pleasure of a popular ovation would be well worth the sacrifice of a few
millions. They sow so much to reap unpopularity! Then, if the nation,
its hopes of 1830 restored, should feel it its duty to keep its
promise,--and it would keep it, for the word of the nation is, like that
of God, sacred,--if, I say, the nation, reconciled by this act with
the public-spirited monarchy, should bear to the foot of the throne its
cheers and its vows, and should at that solemn moment choose me to speak
in its name, the following would be the substance of my speech:--
"SIRE,--This is what the nation wishes to say to your Majesty:--
"O King! you see what it costs to gain the applause of the citizens.
Would you like us henceforth to take for our motto: 'Let us help the
King, the King will help us'? Do you wish the people to cry: 'THE KING
AND THE FRENCH NATION'? Then abandon these grasping bankers, these
quarrelsome lawyers, these miserable bourgeois, these infamous writers,
these dishonored men. All these, Sire, hate you, and continue to support
you only because they fear us. Finish the work of our kings; wipe out
aristocracy and privilege; consult with these faithful proletaires, with
the nation, which alone can honor a sovereign and sincerely shout, 'Long
live the king! '"
The rest of what I have to say, sir, is for you alone; others would
not understand me. You are, I perceive, a republican as well as an
economist, and your patriotism revolts at the very idea of addressing
to the authorities a petition in which the government of Louis Philippe
should be tacitly recognized. "National workshops! it were well to have
such institutions established," you think; "but patriotic hearts never
will accept them from an aristocratic ministry, nor by the courtesy of a
king. " Already, undoubtedly, your old prejudices have returned, and you
now regard me only as a sophist, as ready to flatter the powers that
be as to dishonor, by pushing them to an extreme, the principles of
equality and universal fraternity.
What shall I say to you? . . . That I should so lightly compromise the
future of my theories, either this clever sophistry which is attributed
to me must be at bottom a very trifling affair, or else my convictions
must be so firm that they deprive me of free-will.
But, not to insist further on the necessity of a compromise between the
executive power and the people, it seems to me, sir, that, in doubting
my patriotism, you reason very capriciously, and that your judgments
are exceedingly rash. You, sir, ostensibly defending government and
property, are allowed to be a republican, reformer, phalansterian, any
thing you wish; I, on the contrary, demanding distinctly enough a slight
reform in public economy, am foreordained a conservative, and likewise
a friend of the dynasty. I cannot explain myself more clearly. So firm
a believer am I in the philosophy of accomplished facts and the _statu
quo_ of governmental forms that, instead of destroying that which
exists and beginning over again the past, I prefer to render every thing
legitimate by correcting it. It is true that the corrections which I
propose, though respecting the form, tend to finally change the nature
of the things corrected. Who denies it? But it is precisely that which
constitutes my system of _statu quo_. I make no war upon symbols,
figures, or phantoms. I respect scarecrows, and bow before bugbears. I
ask, on the one hand, that property be left as it is, but that interest
on all kinds of capital be gradually lowered and finally abolished; on
the other hand, that the charter be maintained in its present shape, but
that method be introduced into administration and politics. That is all.
Nevertheless, submitting to all that is, though not satisfied with it, I
endeavor to conform to the established order, and to render unto Caesar
the things that are Caesar's. Is it thought, for instance, that I love
property? . . . Very well; I am myself a proprietor and do homage to the
right of increase, as is proved by the fact that I have creditors to
whom I faithfully pay, every year, a large amount of interest. The same
with politics. Since we are a monarchy, I would cry, "LONG LIVE THE
KING," rather than suffer death; which does not prevent me, however,
from demanding that the irremovable, inviolable, and hereditary
representative of the nation shall act with the proletaires against the
privileged classes; in a word, that the king shall become the leader of
the radical party. Thereby we proletaires would gain every thing; and I
am sure that, at this price, Louis Philippe might secure to his family
the perpetual presidency of the republic. And this is why I think so.
If there existed in France but one great functional inequality, the duty
of the functionary being, from one end of the year to the other, to hold
full court of savants, artists, soldiers, deputies, inspectors, &c. ,
it is evident that the expenses of the presidency then would be the
national expenses; and that, through the reversion of the civil list to
the mass of consumers, the great inequality of which I speak would form
an exact equation with the whole nation. Of this no economist needs a
demonstration. Consequently, there would be no more fear of cliques,
courtiers, and appanages, since no new inequality could be established.
The king, as king, would have friends (unheard-of thing), but no family.
His relatives or kinsmen,--_agnats et cognats_,--if they were fools,
would be nothing to him; and in no case, with the exception of the heir
apparent, would they have, even in court, more privileges than others.
No more nepotism, no more favor, no more baseness. No one would go
to court save when duty required, or when called by an honorable
distinction; and as all conditions would be equal and all functions
equally honored, there would be no other emulation than that of merit
and virtue. I wish the king of the French could say without shame,
"My brother the gardener, my sister-in-law the milk-maid, my son the
prince-royal, and my son the blacksmith. " His daughter might well be an
artist. That would be beautiful, sir; that would be royal; no one but a
buffoon could fail to understand it.
In this way, I have come to think that the forms of royalty may be
made to harmonize with the requirements of equality, and have given
a monarchical form to my republican spirit. I have seen that France
contains by no means as many democrats as is generally supposed, and
I have compromised with the monarchy. I do not say, however, that, if
France wanted a republic, I could not accommodate myself equally well,
and perhaps better. By nature, I hate all signs of distinction, crosses
of honor, gold lace, liveries, costumes, honorary titles, &c. , and,
above all, parades. If I had my way, no general should be distinguished
from a soldier, nor a peer of France from a peasant. Why have I never
taken part in a review? for I am happy to say, sir, that I am a national
guard; I have nothing else in the world but that. Because the review is
always held at a place which I do not like, and because they have fools
for officers whom I am compelled to obey. You see,--and this is not the
best of my history,--that, in spite of my conservative opinions, my life
is a perpetual sacrifice to the republic.
Nevertheless, I doubt if such simplicity would be agreeable to French
vanity, to that inordinate love of distinction and flattery which makes
our nation the most frivolous in the world. M. Lamartine, in his grand
"Meditation on Bonaparte," calls the French A NATION OF BRUTUSES. We are
merely a nation of Narcissuses. Previous to '89, we had the aristocracy
of blood; then every bourgeois looked down upon the commonalty, and
wished to be a nobleman. Afterwards, distinction was based on wealth,
and the bourgeoisie jealous of the nobility, and proud of their money,
used 1830 to promote, not liberty by any means, but the aristocracy
of wealth. When, through the force of events, and the natural laws of
society, for the development of which France offers such free play,
equality shall be established in functions and fortunes, then the beaux
and the belles, the savants and the artists, will form new classes.
There is a universal and innate desire in this Gallic country for fame
and glory. We must have distinctions, be they what they may,--nobility,
wealth, talent, beauty, or dress. I suspect MM. Arage and Garnier-Pages
of having aristocratic manners, and I picture to myself our great
journalists, in their columns so friendly to the people, administering
rough kicks to the compositors in their printing offices.
"This man," once said "Le National" in speaking of Carrel, "whom we
had proclaimed FIRST CONSUL! . . . Is it not true that the monarchical
principle still lives in the hearts of our democrats, and that they
want universal suffrage in order to make themselves kings? Since "Le
National" prides itself on holding more fixed opinions than "Le Journal
des Debats," I presume that, Armand Carrel being dead, M. Armand Marrast
is now first consul, and M. Garnier-Pages second consul. In every thing
the deputy must give way to the journalist. I do not speak of M.
Arago, whom I believe to be, in spite of calumny, too learned for the
consulship. Be it so. Though we have consuls, our position is not much
altered. I am ready to yield my share of sovereignty to MM. Armand
Marrast and Garnier-Pages, the appointed consuls, provided they will
swear on entering upon the duties of their office, to abolish property
and not be haughty.
Forever promises! Forever oaths! Why should the people trust in
tribunes, when kings perjure themselves? Alas! truth and honesty are no
longer, as in the days of King John, in the mouth of princes. A whole
senate has been convicted of felony, and, the interest of the governors
always being, for some mysterious reason, opposed to the interest of the
governed, parliaments follow each other while the nation dies of hunger.
No, no! No more protectors, no more emperors, no more consuls. Better
manage our affairs ourselves than through agents. Better associate our
industries than beg from monopolies; and, since the republic cannot
dispense with virtues, we should labor for our reform.
This, therefore, is my line of conduct. I preach emancipation to the
proletaires; association to the laborers; equality to the wealthy. I
push forward the revolution by all means in my power,--the tongue,
the pen, the press, by action, and example. My life is a continual
apostleship.
Yes, I am a reformer; I say it as I think it, in good faith, and that I
may be no longer reproached for my vanity. I wish to convert the world.
Very likely this fancy springs from an enthusiastic pride which may have
turned to delirium; but it will be admitted at least that I have plenty
of company, and that my madness is not monomania. At the present day,
everybody wishes to be reckoned among the lunatics of Beranger. To say
nothing of the Babeufs, the Marats, and the Robespierres, who swarm in
our streets and workshops, all the great reformers of antiquity live
again in the most illustrious personages of our time. One is Jesus
Christ, another Moses, a third Mahomet; this is Orpheus, that Plato,
or Pythagoras. Gregory VII. , himself, has risen from the grave together
with the evangelists and the apostles; and it may turn out that even I
am that slave who, having escaped from his master's house, was forthwith
made a bishop and a reformer by St. Paul. As for the virgins and holy
women, they are expected daily; at present, we have only Aspasias and
courtesans.
Now, as in all diseases, the diagnostic varies according to the
temperament, so my madness has its peculiar aspects and distinguishing
characteristic.
Reformers, as a general thing, are jealous of their role; they suffer no
rivals, they want no partners; they have disciples, but no co-laborers.
It is my desire, on the contrary, to communicate my enthusiasm, and to
make it, as far as I can, epidemic. I wish that all were, like myself,
reformers, in order that there might be no more sects; and that Christs,
Anti-Christs, and false Christs might be forced to understand and agree
with each other.
Again, every reformer is a magician, or at least desires to become one.
Thus Moses, Jesus Christ, and the apostles, proved their mission by
miracles. Mahomet ridiculed miracles after having endeavored to perform
them. Fourier, more cunning, promises us wonders when the globe shall
be covered with phalansteries. For myself, I have as great a horror
of miracles as of authorities, and aim only at logic. That is why I
continually search after the criterion of certainty. I work for the
reformation of ideas. Little matters it that they find me dry and
austere. I mean to conquer by a bold struggle, or die in the attempt;
and whoever shall come to the defence of property, I swear that I
will force him to argue like M. Considerant, or philosophize like M.
Troplong.
Finally,--and it is here that I differ most from my compeers,--I do not
believe it necessary, in order to reach equality, to turn every thing
topsy-turvy. To maintain that nothing but an overturn can lead to reform
is, in my judgment, to construct a syllogism, and to look for the truth
in the regions of the unknown. Now, I am for generalization, induction,
and progress. I regard general disappropriation as impossible: attacked
from that point, the problem of universal association seems to me
insolvable. Property is like the dragon which Hercules killed: to
destroy it, it must be taken, not by the head, but by the tail,--that
is, by profit and interest.
I stop. I have said enough to satisfy any one who can read and
understand. The surest way by which the government can baffle intrigues
and break up parties is to take possession of science, and point out to
the nation, at an already appreciable distance, the rising oriflamme of
equality; to say to those politicians of the tribune and the press, for
whose fruitless quarrels we pay so dearly, "You are rushing forward,
blind as you are, to the abolition of property; but the government
marches with its eyes open. You hasten the future by unprincipled and
insincere controversy; but the government, which knows this future,
leads you thither by a happy and peaceful transition. The present
generation will not pass away before France, the guide and model of
civilized nations, has regained her rank and legitimate influence. "
But, alas! the government itself,--who shall enlighten it? Who can
induce it to accept this doctrine of equality, whose terrible but
decisive formula the most generous minds hardly dare to acknowledge? . . .
I feel my whole being tremble when I think that the testimony of
three men--yes, of three men who make it their business to teach and
define--would suffice to give full play to public opinion, to change
beliefs, and to fix destinies. Will not the three men be found? . . .
May we hope, or not? What must we think of those who govern us? In the
world of sorrow in which the proletaire moves, and where nothing is
known of the intentions of power, it must be said that despair prevails.
But you, sir,--you, who by function belong to the official world; you,
in whom the people recognize one of their noblest friends, and
property its most prudent adversary,--what say you of our deputies, our
ministers, our king? Do you believe that the authorities are friendly
to us? Then let the government declare its position; let it print its
profession of faith in equality, and I am dumb. Otherwise, I shall
continue the war; and the more obstinacy and malice is shown, the
oftener will I redouble my energy and audacity. I have said before, and
I repeat it,--I have sworn, not on the dagger and the death's-head, amid
the horrors of a catacomb, and in the presence of men besmeared with
blood; but I have sworn on my conscience to pursue property, to grant it
neither peace nor truce, until I see it everywhere execrated. I have not
yet published half the things that I have to say concerning the right of
domain, nor the best things. Let the knights of property, if there are
any who fight otherwise than by retreating, be prepared every day for
a new demonstration and accusation; let them enter the arena armed with
reason and knowledge, not wrapped up in sophisms, for justice will be
done.
"To become enlightened, we must have liberty. That alone suffices;
but it must be the liberty to use the reason in regard to all public
matters.
"And yet we hear on every hand authorities of all kinds and degrees
crying: 'Do not reason! '
"If a distinction is wanted, here is one:--
"The PUBLIC use of the reason always should be free, but the PRIVATE
use ought always to be rigidly restricted. By public use, I mean the
scientific, literary use; by private, that which may be taken advantage
of by civil officials and public functionaries. Since the governmental
machinery must be kept in motion, in order to preserve unity and attain
our object, we must not reason; we must obey. But the same individual
who is bound, from this point of view, to passive obedience, has the
right to speak in his capacity of citizen and scholar. He can make an
appeal to the public, submit to it his observations on events which
occur around him and in the ranks above him, taking care, however, to
avoid offences which are punishable.
"Reason, then, as much as you like; only, obey. "--Kant: Fragment on the
Liberty of Thought and of the Press. Tissot's Translation.
These words of the great philosopher outline for me my duty. I have
delayed the reprint of the work entitled "What is Property? " in order
that I might lift the discussion to the philosophical height from which
ridiculous clamor has dragged it down; and that, by a new presentation
of the question, I might dissipate the fears of good citizens. I now
reenter upon the public use of my reason, and give truth full swing. The
second edition of the First Memoir on Property will immediately follow
the publication of this letter. Before issuing any thing further, I
shall await the observations of my critics, and the co-operation of the
friends of the people and of equality.
Hitherto, I have spoken in my own name, and on my own personal
responsibility. It was my duty. I was endeavoring to call attention to
principles which antiquity could not discover, because it knew nothing
of the science which reveals them,--political economy. I have, then,
testified as to FACTS; in short, I have been a WITNESS. Now my role
changes. It remains for me to deduce the practical consequences of the
facts proclaimed. The position of PUBLIC PROSECUTOR is the only one
which I am henceforth fitted to fill, and I shall sum up the case in the
name of the PEOPLE.
I am, sir, with all the consideration that I owe to your talent and your
character,
Your very humble and most obedient servant,
P. J. PROUDHON,
Pensioner of the Academy of Besancon.
P. S. During the session of April 2, the Chamber of Deputies rejected,
by a very large majority, the literary-property bill, BECAUSE IT DID NOT
UNDERSTAND IT. Nevertheless, literary property is only a special form of
the right of property, which everybody claims to understand. Let us hope
that this legislative precedent will not be fruitless for the cause of
equality. The consequence of the vote of the Chamber is the abolition
of capitalistic property,--property incomprehensible, contradictory,
impossible, and absurd.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 1: In the French edition of Proudhon's works, the above sketch
of his life is prefixed to the first volume of his correspondence, but
the translator prefers to insert it here as the best method of
introducing the author to the American public. ]
[Footnote 2: "An Inquiry into Grammatical Classifications. " By P. J.
Proudhon. A treatise which received honorable mention from the Academy
of Inscriptions, May 4, 1839. Out of print. ]
[Footnote 3: "The Utility of the Celebration of Sunday," &c. By P. J.
Proudhon. Besancon, 1839, 12mo; 2d edition, Paris, 1841, 18mo. ]
[Footnote 4: Charron, on "Wisdom," Chapter xviii. ]
[Footnote 5: M. Vivien, Minister of Justice, before commencing
proceedings against the "Memoir upon Property," asked the opinion of M.
proletaires of the nineteenth century? --for really I cannot call you
revolutionists. What do you think? --what do you believe? --what do you
want? Be guarded in your reply. I have read faithfully your favorite
journals, your most esteemed authors. I find everywhere only vain and
puerile _entites_; nowhere do I discover an idea.
I will explain the meaning of this word _entite_,--new, without doubt,
to most of you.
By _entite_ is generally understood a substance which the imagination
grasps, but which is incognizable by the senses and the reason. Thus the
SOPORIFIC POWER of opium, of which Sganarelle speaks, and the PECCANT
HUMORS of ancient medicine, are _entites_. The _entite_ is the
support of those who do not wish to confess their ignorance. It
is incomprehensible; or, as St. Paul says, the _argumentum non
apparentium_. In philosophy, the _entite_ is often only a repetition of
words which add nothing to the thought.
For example, when M. Pierre Leroux--who says so many excellent things,
but who is too fond, in my opinion, of his Platonic formulas--assures us
that the evils of humanity are due to our IGNORANCE OF LIFE, M. Pierre
Leroux utters an _entite;_ for it is evident that if we are evil it is
because we do not know how to live; but the knowledge of this fact is of
no value to us.
When M. Edgar Quinet declares that France suffers and declines because
there is an ANTAGONISM of men and of interests, he declares an _entite;_
for the problem is to discover the cause of this antagonism.
When M. Lamennais, in thunder tones, preaches self-sacrifice and love,
he proclaims two _entites_; for we need to know on what conditions
self-sacrifice and love can spring up and exist.
So also, proletaires, when you talk of LIBERTY, PROGRESS, and THE
SOVEREIGNTY OF THE PEOPLE, you make of these naturally intelligible
things so many _entites_ in space: for, on the one hand, we need a new
definition of liberty, since that of '89 no longer suffices; and, on the
other, we must know in what direction society should proceed in order to
be in progress. As for the sovereignty of the people, that is a
grosser _entite_ than the sovereignty of reason; it is the _entite_
of _entites_. In fact, since sovereignty can no more be conceived
of outside of the people than outside of reason, it remains to be
ascertained who, among the people, shall exercise the sovereignty; and,
among so many minds, which shall be the sovereigns. To say that the
people should elect their representatives is to say that the people
should recognize their sovereigns, which does not remove the difficulty
at all.
But suppose that, equal by birth, equal before the law, equal in
personality, equal in social functions, you wish also to be equal in
conditions.
Suppose that, perceiving all the mutual relations of men, whether
they produce or exchange or consume, to be relations of commutative
justice,--in a word, social relations; suppose, I say, that, perceiving
this, you wish to give this natural society a legal existence, and to
establish the fact by law,--
I say that then you need a clear, positive, and exact expression of your
whole idea,--that is, an expression which states at once the principle,
the means, and the end; and I add that that expression is ASSOCIATION.
And since the association of the human race dates, at least rightfully,
from the beginning of the world, and has gradually established and
perfected itself by successively divesting itself of its negative
elements, slavery, nobility, despotism, aristocracy, and feudalism,--I
say that, to eliminate the last negation of society, to formulate the
last revolutionary idea, you must change your old rallying-cries, NO
MORE ABSOLUTISM, NO MORE NOBILITY, NO MORE SLAVES! into that of NO MORE
PROPERTY! . . .
But I know what astonishes you, poor souls, blasted by the wind of
poverty, and crushed by your patrons' pride: it is EQUALITY, whose
consequences frighten you. How, you have said in your journal,--how can
we "dream of a level which, being unnatural, is therefore unjust? How
shall we pay the day's labor of a Cormenin or a Lamennais? "
Plebeians, listen! When, after the battle of Salamis, the Athenians
assembled to award the prizes for courage, after the ballots had been
collected, it was found that each combatant had one vote for the first
prize, and Themistocles all the votes for the second. The people of
Minerva were crowned by their own hands. Truly heroic souls! all were
worthy of the olive-branch, since all had ventured to claim it for
themselves. Antiquity praised this sublime spirit. Learn, proletaires,
to esteem yourselves, and to respect your dignity. You wish to be
free, and you know not how to be citizens. Now, whoever says "citizens"
necessarily says equals.
If I should call myself Lamennais or Cormenin, and some journal,
speaking of me, should burst forth with these hyperboles, INCOMPARABLE
GENIUS, SUPERIOR MIND, CONSUMMATE VIRTUE, NOBLE CHARACTER, I should not
like it, and should complain,--first, because such eulogies are never
deserved; and, second, because they furnish a bad example. But I wish,
in order to reconcile you to equality, to measure for you the
greatest literary personage of our century. Do not accuse me of envy,
proletaires, if I, a defender of equality, estimate at their proper
value talents which are universally admired, and which I, better than
any one, know how to recognize. A dwarf can always measure a giant: all
that he needs is a yardstick.
You have seen the pretentious announcements of "L'Esquisse d'une
Philosophie," and you have admired the work on trust; for either you
have not read it, or, if you have, you are incapable of judging it.
Acquaint yourselves, then, with this speculation more brilliant than
sound; and, while admiring the enthusiasm of the author, cease to pity
those useful labors which only habit and the great number of the
persons engaged in them render contemptible. I shall be brief; for,
notwithstanding the importance of the subject and the genius of the
author, what I have to say is of but little moment.
M. Lamennais starts with the existence of God. How does he demonstrate
it? By Cicero's argument,--that is, by the consent of the human race.
There is nothing new in that. We have still to find out whether the
belief of the human race is legitimate; or, as Kant says, whether
our subjective certainty of the existence of God corresponds with the
objective truth. This, however, does not trouble M. Lamennais. He says
that, if the human race believes, it is because it has a reason for
believing.
Then, having pronounced the name of God, M. Lamennais sings a hymn; and
that is his demonstration!
This first hypothesis admitted, M. Lamennais follows it with a second;
namely, that there are three persons in God. But, while Christianity
teaches the dogma of the Trinity only on the authority of revelation, M.
Lamennais pretends to arrive at it by the sole force of argument; and he
does not perceive that his pretended demonstration is, from beginning to
end, anthropomorphism,--that is, an ascription of the faculties of the
human mind and the powers of nature to the Divine substance. New songs,
new hymns!
God and the Trinity thus DEMONSTRATED, the philosopher passes to the
creation,--a third hypothesis, in which M. Lamennais, always eloquent,
varied, and sublime, DEMONSTRATES that God made the world neither of
nothing, nor of something, nor of himself; that he was free in creating,
but that nevertheless he could not but create; that there is in matter
a matter which is not matter; that the archetypal ideas of the world are
separated from each other, in the Divine mind, by a division which is
obscure and unintelligible, and yet substantial and real, which involves
intelligibility, &c. We meet with like contradictions concerning the
origin of evil. To explain this problem,--one of the profoundest in
philosophy,--M. Lamennais at one time denies evil, at another makes God
the author of evil, and at still another seeks outside of God a
first cause which is not God,--an amalgam of _entites_ more or less
incoherent, borrowed from Plato, Proclus, Spinoza, I might say even from
all philosophers.
Having thus established his trinity of hypotheses, M. Lamennais
deduces therefrom, by a badly connected chain of analogies, his whole
philosophy. And it is here especially that we notice the syncretism
which is peculiar to him. The theory of M. Lamennais embraces all
systems, and supports all opinions. Are you a materialist? Suppress,
as useless _entites_, the three persons in God; then, starting directly
from heat, light, and electro-magnetism,--which, according to the
author, are the three original fluids, the three primary external
manifestations of Will, Intelligence, and Love,--you have a
materialistic and atheistic cosmogony. On the contrary, are you wedded
to spiritualism? With the theory of the immateriality of the body, you
are able to see everywhere nothing but spirits. Finally, if you incline
to pantheism, you will be satisfied by M. Lamennais, who formally
teaches that the world is not an EMANATION from Divinity,--which is pure
pantheism,--but a FLOW of Divinity.
I do not pretend, however, to deny that "L'Esquisse" contains some
excellent things; but, by the author's declaration, these things are not
original with him; it is the system which is his. That is undoubtedly
the reason why M. Lamennais speaks so contemptuously of his predecessors
in philosophy, and disdains to quote his originals. He thinks that,
since "L'Esquisse" contains all true philosophy, the world will lose
nothing when the names and works of the old philosophers perish. M.
Lamennais, who renders glory to God in beautiful songs, does not know
how as well to render justice to his fellows. His fatal fault is this
appropriation of knowledge, which the theologians call the PHILOSOPHICAL
SIN, or the SIN AGAINST THE HOLY GHOST--a sin which will not damn you,
proletaires, nor me either.
In short, "L'Esquisse," judged as a system, and divested of all which
its author borrows from previous systems, is a commonplace work, whose
method consists in constantly explaining the known by the unknown, and
in giving entites for abstractions, and tautologies for proofs. Its
whole theodicy is a work not of genius but of imagination, a patching up
of neo-Platonic ideas. The psychological portion amounts to nothing,
M. Lamennais openly ridiculing labors of this character, without which,
however, metaphysics is impossible. The book, which treats of logic
and its methods, is weak, vague, and shallow. Finally, we find in the
physical and physiological speculations which M. Lamennais deduces
from his trinitarian cosmogony grave errors, the preconceived design of
accommodating facts to theory, and the substitution in almost every case
of hypothesis for reality. The third volume on industry and art is the
most interesting to read, and the best. It is true that M. Lamennais
can boast of nothing but his style. As a philosopher, he has added not a
single idea to those which existed before him.
Why, then, this excessive mediocrity of M. Lamennais considered as
a thinker, a mediocrity which disclosed itself at the time of the
publication of the "Essai sur l'Indifference! "? It is because (remember
this well, proletaires! ) Nature makes no man truly complete, and because
the development of certain faculties almost always excludes an equal
development of the opposite faculties; it is because M. Lamennais
is preeminently a poet, a man of feeling and sentiment. Look at his
style,--exuberant, sonorous, picturesque, vehement, full of exaggeration
and invective,--and hold it for certain that no man possessed of such
a style was ever a true metaphysician. This wealth of expression and
illustration, which everybody admires, becomes in M Lamennais the
incurable cause of his philosophical impotence. His flow of language,
and his sensitive nature misleading his imagination, he thinks that
he is reasoning when he is only repeating himself, and readily takes a
description for a logical deduction. Hence his horror of positive ideas,
his feeble powers of analysis, his pronounced taste for indefinite
analogies, verbal abstractions, hypothetical generalities, in short, all
sorts of entites.
Further, the entire life of M. Lamennais is conclusive proof of
his anti-philosophical genius. Devout even to mysticism, an ardent
ultramontane, an intolerant theocrat, he at first feels the double
influence of the religious reaction and the literary theories which
marked the beginning of this century, and falls back to the middle ages
and Gregory VII. ; then, suddenly becoming a progressive Christian and a
democrat, he gradually leans towards rationalism, and finally falls into
deism. At present, everybody waits at the trap-door. As for me, though I
would not swear to it, I am inclined to think that M. Lamennais, already
taken with scepticism, will die in a state of indifference. He owes
to individual reason and methodical doubt this expiation of his early
essays.
It has been pretended that M. Lamennais, preaching now a theocracy, now
universal democracy, has been always consistent; that, under different
names, he has sought invariably one and the same thing,--unity. Pitiful
excuse for an author surprised in the very act of contradiction! What
would be thought of a man who, by turns a servant of despotism under
Louis XVI, a demagogue with Robespierre, a courtier of the Emperor,
a bigot during fifteen years of the Restoration, a conservative
since 1830, should dare to say that he ever had wished for but one
thing,--public order? Would he be regarded as any the less a renegade
from all parties? Public order, unity, the world's welfare, social
harmony, the union of the nations,--concerning each of these things
there is no possible difference of opinion. Everybody wishes them;
the character of the publicist depends only upon the means by which
he proposes to arrive at them. But why look to M. Lamennais for a
steadfastness of opinion, which he himself repudiates? Has he not said,
"The mind has no law; that which I believe to-day, I did not believe
yesterday; I do not know that I shall believe it to-morrow"?
No; there is no real superiority among men, since all talents and
capacities are combined never in one individual. This man has the power
of thought, that one imagination and style, still another industrial and
commercial capacity. By our very nature and education, we possess only
special aptitudes which are limited and confined, and which become
consequently more necessary as they gain in depth and strength.
Capacities are to each other as functions and persons; who would dare
to classify them in ranks? The finest genius is, by the laws of his
existence and development, the most dependent upon the society which
creates him. Who would dare to make a god of the glorious child?
"It is not strength which makes the man," said a Hercules of the
market-place to the admiring crowd; "it is character. " That man, who
had only his muscles, held force in contempt. The lesson is a good one,
proletaires; we should profit by it. It is not talent (which is also a
force), it is not knowledge, it is not beauty which makes the man. It is
heart, courage, will, virtue. Now, if we are equal in that which makes
us men, how can the accidental distribution of secondary faculties
detract from our manhood?
Remember that privilege is naturally and inevitably the lot of the weak;
and do not be misled by the fame which accompanies certain talents
whose greatest merit consists in their rarity, and a long and toilsome
apprenticeship. It is easier for M. Lamennais to recite a philippic, or
sing a humanitarian ode after the Platonic fashion, than to discover a
single useful truth; it is easier for an economist to apply the laws of
production and distribution than to write ten lines in the style of M.
Lamennais; it is easier for both to speak than to act. You, then, who
put your hands to the work, who alone truly create, why do you wish me
to admit your inferiority? But, what am I saying?
Yes, you are inferior, for you lack virtue and will! Ready for labor and
for battle, you have, when liberty and equality are in question, neither
courage nor character!
In the preface to his pamphlet on "Le Pays et le Gouvernement," as well
as in his defence before the jury, M. Lamennais frankly declared
himself an advocate of property. Out of regard for the author and his
misfortune, I shall abstain from characterizing this declaration, and
from examining these two sorrowful performances. M. Lamennais seems to
be only the tool of a quasi-radical party, which flatters him in order
to use him, without respect for a glorious, but hence forth powerless,
old age. What means this profession of faith? From the first number of
"L'Avenir" to "L'Esquisse d'une Philosophie," M. Lamennais always
favors equality, association, and even a sort of vague and indefinite
communism. M. Lamennais, in recognizing the right of property, gives the
lie to his past career, and renounces his most generous tendencies. Can
it, then, be true that in this man, who has been too roughly treated,
but who is also too easily flattered, strength of talent has already
outlived strength of will?
It is said that M. Lamennais has rejected the offers of several of his
friends to try to procure for him a commutation of his sentence. M.
Lamennais prefers to serve out his time. May not this affectation of a
false stoicism come from the same source as his recognition of the right
of property? The Huron, when taken prisoner, hurls insults and threats
at his conqueror,--that is the heroism of the savage; the martyr
prays for his executioners, and is willing to receive from them his
life,--that is the heroism of the Christian. Why has the apostle of love
become an apostle of anger and revenge? Has, then, the translator of
"L'Imitation" forgotten that he who offends charity cannot honor virtue?
Galileo, retracting on his knees before the tribunal of the inquisition
his heresy in regard to the movement of the earth, and recovering at
that price his liberty, seems to me a hundred times grander than
M. Lamennais. What! if we suffer for truth and justice, must we, in
retaliation, thrust our persecutors outside the pale of human society;
and, when sentenced to an unjust punishment, must we decline exemption
if it is offered to us, because it pleases a few base satellites to call
it a pardon? Such is not the wisdom of Christianity. But I forgot that
in the presence of M. Lamennais this name is no longer pronounced. May
the prophet of "L'Avenir" be soon restored to liberty and his friends;
but, above all, may he henceforth derive his inspiration only from his
genius and his heart!
O proletaires, proletaires! how long are you to be victimized by this
spirit of revenge and implacable hatred which your false friends kindle,
and which, perhaps, has done more harm to the development of reformatory
ideas than the corruption, ignorance, and malice of the government?
Believe me, at the present time everybody is to blame. In fact, in
intention, or in example, all are found wanting; and you have no right
to accuse any one. The king himself (God forgive me! I do not like to
justify a king),--the king himself is, like his predecessors, only the
personification of an idea, and an idea, proletaires, which possesses
you yet. His greatest wrong consists in wishing for its complete
realization, while you wish it realized only partially,--consequently,
in being logical in his government; while you, in your complaints, are
not at all so. You clamor for a second regicide. He that is without sin
among you,--let him cast at the prince of property the first stone!
How successful you would have been if, in order to influence men,
you had appealed to the self-love of men,--if, in order to alter
the constitution and the law, you had placed yourselves within the
constitution and the law! Fifty thousand laws, they say, make up our
political and civil codes. Of these fifty thousand laws, twenty-five
thousand are for you, twenty-five thousand against you. Is it not clear
that your duty is to oppose the former to the latter, and thus, by the
argument of contradiction, drive privilege into its last ditch? This
method of action is henceforth the only useful one, being the only moral
and rational one.
For my part, if I had the ear of this nation, to which I am attached by
birth and predilection, with no intention of playing the leading part
in the future republic, I would instruct the laboring masses to
conquer property through institutions and judicial pleadings; to seek
auxiliaries and accomplices in the highest ranks of society, and to ruin
all privileged classes by taking advantage of their common desire for
power and popularity.
The petition for the electoral reform has already received two hundred
thousand signatures, and the illustrious Arago threatens us with a
million. Surely, that will be well done; but from this million of
citizens, who are as willing to vote for an emperor as for equality,
could we not select ten thousand signatures--I mean bona fide
signatures--whose authors can read, write, cipher, and even think
a little, and whom we could invite, after due perusal and verbal
explanation, to sign such a petition as the following:--
"TO HIS EXCELLENCY THE MINISTER OF THE INTERIOR:--
"MONSIEUR LE MINISTRE,--On the day when a royal ordinance, decreeing
the establishment of model national workshops, shall appear in the
'Moniteur,' the undersigned, to the number of TEN THOUSAND, will repair
to the Palace of the Tuileries, and there, with all the power of their
lungs, will shout, 'Long live Louis Philippe! '
"On the day when the 'Moniteur' shall inform the public that this
petition is refused, the undersigned, to the number of TEN THOUSAND,
will say secretly in their hearts, 'Down with Louis Philippe! '"
If I am not mistaken, such a petition would have some effect. [75] The
pleasure of a popular ovation would be well worth the sacrifice of a few
millions. They sow so much to reap unpopularity! Then, if the nation,
its hopes of 1830 restored, should feel it its duty to keep its
promise,--and it would keep it, for the word of the nation is, like that
of God, sacred,--if, I say, the nation, reconciled by this act with
the public-spirited monarchy, should bear to the foot of the throne its
cheers and its vows, and should at that solemn moment choose me to speak
in its name, the following would be the substance of my speech:--
"SIRE,--This is what the nation wishes to say to your Majesty:--
"O King! you see what it costs to gain the applause of the citizens.
Would you like us henceforth to take for our motto: 'Let us help the
King, the King will help us'? Do you wish the people to cry: 'THE KING
AND THE FRENCH NATION'? Then abandon these grasping bankers, these
quarrelsome lawyers, these miserable bourgeois, these infamous writers,
these dishonored men. All these, Sire, hate you, and continue to support
you only because they fear us. Finish the work of our kings; wipe out
aristocracy and privilege; consult with these faithful proletaires, with
the nation, which alone can honor a sovereign and sincerely shout, 'Long
live the king! '"
The rest of what I have to say, sir, is for you alone; others would
not understand me. You are, I perceive, a republican as well as an
economist, and your patriotism revolts at the very idea of addressing
to the authorities a petition in which the government of Louis Philippe
should be tacitly recognized. "National workshops! it were well to have
such institutions established," you think; "but patriotic hearts never
will accept them from an aristocratic ministry, nor by the courtesy of a
king. " Already, undoubtedly, your old prejudices have returned, and you
now regard me only as a sophist, as ready to flatter the powers that
be as to dishonor, by pushing them to an extreme, the principles of
equality and universal fraternity.
What shall I say to you? . . . That I should so lightly compromise the
future of my theories, either this clever sophistry which is attributed
to me must be at bottom a very trifling affair, or else my convictions
must be so firm that they deprive me of free-will.
But, not to insist further on the necessity of a compromise between the
executive power and the people, it seems to me, sir, that, in doubting
my patriotism, you reason very capriciously, and that your judgments
are exceedingly rash. You, sir, ostensibly defending government and
property, are allowed to be a republican, reformer, phalansterian, any
thing you wish; I, on the contrary, demanding distinctly enough a slight
reform in public economy, am foreordained a conservative, and likewise
a friend of the dynasty. I cannot explain myself more clearly. So firm
a believer am I in the philosophy of accomplished facts and the _statu
quo_ of governmental forms that, instead of destroying that which
exists and beginning over again the past, I prefer to render every thing
legitimate by correcting it. It is true that the corrections which I
propose, though respecting the form, tend to finally change the nature
of the things corrected. Who denies it? But it is precisely that which
constitutes my system of _statu quo_. I make no war upon symbols,
figures, or phantoms. I respect scarecrows, and bow before bugbears. I
ask, on the one hand, that property be left as it is, but that interest
on all kinds of capital be gradually lowered and finally abolished; on
the other hand, that the charter be maintained in its present shape, but
that method be introduced into administration and politics. That is all.
Nevertheless, submitting to all that is, though not satisfied with it, I
endeavor to conform to the established order, and to render unto Caesar
the things that are Caesar's. Is it thought, for instance, that I love
property? . . . Very well; I am myself a proprietor and do homage to the
right of increase, as is proved by the fact that I have creditors to
whom I faithfully pay, every year, a large amount of interest. The same
with politics. Since we are a monarchy, I would cry, "LONG LIVE THE
KING," rather than suffer death; which does not prevent me, however,
from demanding that the irremovable, inviolable, and hereditary
representative of the nation shall act with the proletaires against the
privileged classes; in a word, that the king shall become the leader of
the radical party. Thereby we proletaires would gain every thing; and I
am sure that, at this price, Louis Philippe might secure to his family
the perpetual presidency of the republic. And this is why I think so.
If there existed in France but one great functional inequality, the duty
of the functionary being, from one end of the year to the other, to hold
full court of savants, artists, soldiers, deputies, inspectors, &c. ,
it is evident that the expenses of the presidency then would be the
national expenses; and that, through the reversion of the civil list to
the mass of consumers, the great inequality of which I speak would form
an exact equation with the whole nation. Of this no economist needs a
demonstration. Consequently, there would be no more fear of cliques,
courtiers, and appanages, since no new inequality could be established.
The king, as king, would have friends (unheard-of thing), but no family.
His relatives or kinsmen,--_agnats et cognats_,--if they were fools,
would be nothing to him; and in no case, with the exception of the heir
apparent, would they have, even in court, more privileges than others.
No more nepotism, no more favor, no more baseness. No one would go
to court save when duty required, or when called by an honorable
distinction; and as all conditions would be equal and all functions
equally honored, there would be no other emulation than that of merit
and virtue. I wish the king of the French could say without shame,
"My brother the gardener, my sister-in-law the milk-maid, my son the
prince-royal, and my son the blacksmith. " His daughter might well be an
artist. That would be beautiful, sir; that would be royal; no one but a
buffoon could fail to understand it.
In this way, I have come to think that the forms of royalty may be
made to harmonize with the requirements of equality, and have given
a monarchical form to my republican spirit. I have seen that France
contains by no means as many democrats as is generally supposed, and
I have compromised with the monarchy. I do not say, however, that, if
France wanted a republic, I could not accommodate myself equally well,
and perhaps better. By nature, I hate all signs of distinction, crosses
of honor, gold lace, liveries, costumes, honorary titles, &c. , and,
above all, parades. If I had my way, no general should be distinguished
from a soldier, nor a peer of France from a peasant. Why have I never
taken part in a review? for I am happy to say, sir, that I am a national
guard; I have nothing else in the world but that. Because the review is
always held at a place which I do not like, and because they have fools
for officers whom I am compelled to obey. You see,--and this is not the
best of my history,--that, in spite of my conservative opinions, my life
is a perpetual sacrifice to the republic.
Nevertheless, I doubt if such simplicity would be agreeable to French
vanity, to that inordinate love of distinction and flattery which makes
our nation the most frivolous in the world. M. Lamartine, in his grand
"Meditation on Bonaparte," calls the French A NATION OF BRUTUSES. We are
merely a nation of Narcissuses. Previous to '89, we had the aristocracy
of blood; then every bourgeois looked down upon the commonalty, and
wished to be a nobleman. Afterwards, distinction was based on wealth,
and the bourgeoisie jealous of the nobility, and proud of their money,
used 1830 to promote, not liberty by any means, but the aristocracy
of wealth. When, through the force of events, and the natural laws of
society, for the development of which France offers such free play,
equality shall be established in functions and fortunes, then the beaux
and the belles, the savants and the artists, will form new classes.
There is a universal and innate desire in this Gallic country for fame
and glory. We must have distinctions, be they what they may,--nobility,
wealth, talent, beauty, or dress. I suspect MM. Arage and Garnier-Pages
of having aristocratic manners, and I picture to myself our great
journalists, in their columns so friendly to the people, administering
rough kicks to the compositors in their printing offices.
"This man," once said "Le National" in speaking of Carrel, "whom we
had proclaimed FIRST CONSUL! . . . Is it not true that the monarchical
principle still lives in the hearts of our democrats, and that they
want universal suffrage in order to make themselves kings? Since "Le
National" prides itself on holding more fixed opinions than "Le Journal
des Debats," I presume that, Armand Carrel being dead, M. Armand Marrast
is now first consul, and M. Garnier-Pages second consul. In every thing
the deputy must give way to the journalist. I do not speak of M.
Arago, whom I believe to be, in spite of calumny, too learned for the
consulship. Be it so. Though we have consuls, our position is not much
altered. I am ready to yield my share of sovereignty to MM. Armand
Marrast and Garnier-Pages, the appointed consuls, provided they will
swear on entering upon the duties of their office, to abolish property
and not be haughty.
Forever promises! Forever oaths! Why should the people trust in
tribunes, when kings perjure themselves? Alas! truth and honesty are no
longer, as in the days of King John, in the mouth of princes. A whole
senate has been convicted of felony, and, the interest of the governors
always being, for some mysterious reason, opposed to the interest of the
governed, parliaments follow each other while the nation dies of hunger.
No, no! No more protectors, no more emperors, no more consuls. Better
manage our affairs ourselves than through agents. Better associate our
industries than beg from monopolies; and, since the republic cannot
dispense with virtues, we should labor for our reform.
This, therefore, is my line of conduct. I preach emancipation to the
proletaires; association to the laborers; equality to the wealthy. I
push forward the revolution by all means in my power,--the tongue,
the pen, the press, by action, and example. My life is a continual
apostleship.
Yes, I am a reformer; I say it as I think it, in good faith, and that I
may be no longer reproached for my vanity. I wish to convert the world.
Very likely this fancy springs from an enthusiastic pride which may have
turned to delirium; but it will be admitted at least that I have plenty
of company, and that my madness is not monomania. At the present day,
everybody wishes to be reckoned among the lunatics of Beranger. To say
nothing of the Babeufs, the Marats, and the Robespierres, who swarm in
our streets and workshops, all the great reformers of antiquity live
again in the most illustrious personages of our time. One is Jesus
Christ, another Moses, a third Mahomet; this is Orpheus, that Plato,
or Pythagoras. Gregory VII. , himself, has risen from the grave together
with the evangelists and the apostles; and it may turn out that even I
am that slave who, having escaped from his master's house, was forthwith
made a bishop and a reformer by St. Paul. As for the virgins and holy
women, they are expected daily; at present, we have only Aspasias and
courtesans.
Now, as in all diseases, the diagnostic varies according to the
temperament, so my madness has its peculiar aspects and distinguishing
characteristic.
Reformers, as a general thing, are jealous of their role; they suffer no
rivals, they want no partners; they have disciples, but no co-laborers.
It is my desire, on the contrary, to communicate my enthusiasm, and to
make it, as far as I can, epidemic. I wish that all were, like myself,
reformers, in order that there might be no more sects; and that Christs,
Anti-Christs, and false Christs might be forced to understand and agree
with each other.
Again, every reformer is a magician, or at least desires to become one.
Thus Moses, Jesus Christ, and the apostles, proved their mission by
miracles. Mahomet ridiculed miracles after having endeavored to perform
them. Fourier, more cunning, promises us wonders when the globe shall
be covered with phalansteries. For myself, I have as great a horror
of miracles as of authorities, and aim only at logic. That is why I
continually search after the criterion of certainty. I work for the
reformation of ideas. Little matters it that they find me dry and
austere. I mean to conquer by a bold struggle, or die in the attempt;
and whoever shall come to the defence of property, I swear that I
will force him to argue like M. Considerant, or philosophize like M.
Troplong.
Finally,--and it is here that I differ most from my compeers,--I do not
believe it necessary, in order to reach equality, to turn every thing
topsy-turvy. To maintain that nothing but an overturn can lead to reform
is, in my judgment, to construct a syllogism, and to look for the truth
in the regions of the unknown. Now, I am for generalization, induction,
and progress. I regard general disappropriation as impossible: attacked
from that point, the problem of universal association seems to me
insolvable. Property is like the dragon which Hercules killed: to
destroy it, it must be taken, not by the head, but by the tail,--that
is, by profit and interest.
I stop. I have said enough to satisfy any one who can read and
understand. The surest way by which the government can baffle intrigues
and break up parties is to take possession of science, and point out to
the nation, at an already appreciable distance, the rising oriflamme of
equality; to say to those politicians of the tribune and the press, for
whose fruitless quarrels we pay so dearly, "You are rushing forward,
blind as you are, to the abolition of property; but the government
marches with its eyes open. You hasten the future by unprincipled and
insincere controversy; but the government, which knows this future,
leads you thither by a happy and peaceful transition. The present
generation will not pass away before France, the guide and model of
civilized nations, has regained her rank and legitimate influence. "
But, alas! the government itself,--who shall enlighten it? Who can
induce it to accept this doctrine of equality, whose terrible but
decisive formula the most generous minds hardly dare to acknowledge? . . .
I feel my whole being tremble when I think that the testimony of
three men--yes, of three men who make it their business to teach and
define--would suffice to give full play to public opinion, to change
beliefs, and to fix destinies. Will not the three men be found? . . .
May we hope, or not? What must we think of those who govern us? In the
world of sorrow in which the proletaire moves, and where nothing is
known of the intentions of power, it must be said that despair prevails.
But you, sir,--you, who by function belong to the official world; you,
in whom the people recognize one of their noblest friends, and
property its most prudent adversary,--what say you of our deputies, our
ministers, our king? Do you believe that the authorities are friendly
to us? Then let the government declare its position; let it print its
profession of faith in equality, and I am dumb. Otherwise, I shall
continue the war; and the more obstinacy and malice is shown, the
oftener will I redouble my energy and audacity. I have said before, and
I repeat it,--I have sworn, not on the dagger and the death's-head, amid
the horrors of a catacomb, and in the presence of men besmeared with
blood; but I have sworn on my conscience to pursue property, to grant it
neither peace nor truce, until I see it everywhere execrated. I have not
yet published half the things that I have to say concerning the right of
domain, nor the best things. Let the knights of property, if there are
any who fight otherwise than by retreating, be prepared every day for
a new demonstration and accusation; let them enter the arena armed with
reason and knowledge, not wrapped up in sophisms, for justice will be
done.
"To become enlightened, we must have liberty. That alone suffices;
but it must be the liberty to use the reason in regard to all public
matters.
"And yet we hear on every hand authorities of all kinds and degrees
crying: 'Do not reason! '
"If a distinction is wanted, here is one:--
"The PUBLIC use of the reason always should be free, but the PRIVATE
use ought always to be rigidly restricted. By public use, I mean the
scientific, literary use; by private, that which may be taken advantage
of by civil officials and public functionaries. Since the governmental
machinery must be kept in motion, in order to preserve unity and attain
our object, we must not reason; we must obey. But the same individual
who is bound, from this point of view, to passive obedience, has the
right to speak in his capacity of citizen and scholar. He can make an
appeal to the public, submit to it his observations on events which
occur around him and in the ranks above him, taking care, however, to
avoid offences which are punishable.
"Reason, then, as much as you like; only, obey. "--Kant: Fragment on the
Liberty of Thought and of the Press. Tissot's Translation.
These words of the great philosopher outline for me my duty. I have
delayed the reprint of the work entitled "What is Property? " in order
that I might lift the discussion to the philosophical height from which
ridiculous clamor has dragged it down; and that, by a new presentation
of the question, I might dissipate the fears of good citizens. I now
reenter upon the public use of my reason, and give truth full swing. The
second edition of the First Memoir on Property will immediately follow
the publication of this letter. Before issuing any thing further, I
shall await the observations of my critics, and the co-operation of the
friends of the people and of equality.
Hitherto, I have spoken in my own name, and on my own personal
responsibility. It was my duty. I was endeavoring to call attention to
principles which antiquity could not discover, because it knew nothing
of the science which reveals them,--political economy. I have, then,
testified as to FACTS; in short, I have been a WITNESS. Now my role
changes. It remains for me to deduce the practical consequences of the
facts proclaimed. The position of PUBLIC PROSECUTOR is the only one
which I am henceforth fitted to fill, and I shall sum up the case in the
name of the PEOPLE.
I am, sir, with all the consideration that I owe to your talent and your
character,
Your very humble and most obedient servant,
P. J. PROUDHON,
Pensioner of the Academy of Besancon.
P. S. During the session of April 2, the Chamber of Deputies rejected,
by a very large majority, the literary-property bill, BECAUSE IT DID NOT
UNDERSTAND IT. Nevertheless, literary property is only a special form of
the right of property, which everybody claims to understand. Let us hope
that this legislative precedent will not be fruitless for the cause of
equality. The consequence of the vote of the Chamber is the abolition
of capitalistic property,--property incomprehensible, contradictory,
impossible, and absurd.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 1: In the French edition of Proudhon's works, the above sketch
of his life is prefixed to the first volume of his correspondence, but
the translator prefers to insert it here as the best method of
introducing the author to the American public. ]
[Footnote 2: "An Inquiry into Grammatical Classifications. " By P. J.
Proudhon. A treatise which received honorable mention from the Academy
of Inscriptions, May 4, 1839. Out of print. ]
[Footnote 3: "The Utility of the Celebration of Sunday," &c. By P. J.
Proudhon. Besancon, 1839, 12mo; 2d edition, Paris, 1841, 18mo. ]
[Footnote 4: Charron, on "Wisdom," Chapter xviii. ]
[Footnote 5: M. Vivien, Minister of Justice, before commencing
proceedings against the "Memoir upon Property," asked the opinion of M.
